Matinee war: B'wood vs others

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />Cinema is supposed to be the ultimate leveller. It appeals across borders and biases. Cine themes are universal. They have become handshakes between communities and cultures. If <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mother India</span> united Indian emotions, the Harry Potter series has awakened parents to the magic of childhood.That is the mystique of the matinee. <br /></div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="35.6%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" white=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/839303.cms" alt="/photo/839303.cms" border="0" /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">A no-show notice at a Bangalore cinema hall. (AFP photo)</span></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal">But trouble is brewing in matineedom. In cosmopolitan Bangalore the first salvo has been fired: Kannada filmmakers, hassled about competition from Bollywood and Hollywood films, now seek to delay their release. They are sure such a step will help nurse the ailing Kannada film industry back to life — and profit.<br /><br />Others are not so sure. Already, Hollywood is fretting. "What good is a movie that does not enjoy a nationwide release?" asks Uday Singh, MD, Columbia Tristar Films, India. Audiences are peeved too. Little Anjali Karthik, all of 9, is upset. "My friends have watched <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Shrek 2</span> and I haven''t," she tells her parents. Anjali refuses to watch the film anywhere but the theatre. "Why can''t we fly to Mumbai to see the movie, mummy?" she asks testily.<br /><br />Anjali''s angst is understandable. For, it represents the changing contours of mega-mall India. Its cities are hooked to the world; their peoples live local and act global. These are the savvy audiences that Bollywood and Hollywood are aggressively wooing. Shrek''s Princess Fiona is as much local as she is global. But Fiona is an idea that sells. "Kannada films can make a mark if they''re high on content and quality," says Kavitha Lankesh, film director. The more universal the plot, the better the chances of striking a chord with the audience. After all, the market isn''t about cash registers alone. It is about a connect between the buyer and the seller of dreams.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">Unless regional films wake up to competition, they could be elbowed out of theatres. But the threat is not limited to the movie hall alone. Plasma and DVD are sending the silver screen into the Jurassic Park. To survive, regional cinema has to adapt, not protest. It has to push innovation, not subsidy. Already, Bollywood is adjusting to the pan-Indian model of production, where films are shot, processed, dubbed in diverse locations in India. Actors keep flitting between Hindi and regional cinema. Mani Ratnam''s debut film was in Kannada. It was titled <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Pallavi Anu Pallavi</span> and starred Anil Kapoor and Lakshmi. And it had music director Ilayaraja to give the score. <br /><br />Eventually, it may not matter how and where the movie is made. Because dubbing could well differentiate the final product. Says director Mahesh Bhatt, whose <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Jism</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Murder</span> were dubbed into Tamil and Telugu: "The idea is not workable in genres other than mythology and sex." But business logic could well find a way. It already smells synergy in the multiplex model, where regional, national, and Western cinema could easily play side by side by side, cross-selling one another.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal">To make room — in their own territories — regional films need to cope with shifting consumer preferences. Their modest economics do not permit mega-budget visual extravaganzas like those of Bollywood. To play safe, many bank on remakes and routine potboilers. Result: poor business. <br /><br />Even zero-tax hasn''t changed cine fortunes a wee bit. Explains actor Anant Nag, underlining the messy situation Kannada cinema is in: "Kannada films are as good as any other regional films. But there''s a lot of hanky-panky going on. Earlier, distributors of other language films had agreed that only six prints of a new film would be released in the market. This agreement has been broken." <br /><br />In this theatre of shifting cultural expressions, there is little room for insulation. Take the disco quotient, a key ingredient of pop cinema, which has got hard-coded into the youth of today. How long can we stop them from having a blast on weekends? It''s all got to do with rising aspirations, exemplified best by Bangalore itself which has seen its numbers ballooning phenomenally in the last three decades. Growth, says historian Sunil Khilnani, is "based not on the traditional sources of wealth in independent India — control of land, bureaucratic office or industry — but on professional and technical skills." Already, Hyderabad and Gurgaon are at the cusp of this crossover cosmopolitanism.<br /><br />Cinema, after all, is about sharing the dance of lights in a darkened hall. They are about two hands digging into popcorn, about shared delight and mutual experience. As the grandmaster, Alfred Hitchcock, put it, "Cinema is not a slice of life but a piece of cake." Why not, then, share it?<br /><br /><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">With inputs from Jayanth Kodkani and Anubha Sawhney</span></div> </div>